At the end of the trial of the Trèbes and Carcassonne attacks, Friday February 23, the Paris special assize court was more lenient than the prosecution's requisitions.

Against the seven accused – a woman and six men aged 24 to 35 – tried since the end of January, the court handed down sentences ranging from six months to four years in prison.

Four of the five defendants tried for terrorist conspiracy were acquitted of this offense.

Only Marine Pequignot, the radicalized girlfriend of the attacker, was found guilty of this offense, but will not return to prison.

The terrorist attack left four dead in 2018. The attacker, Radouane Lakdim, was killed during the GIGN attack in a supermarket in Trèbes (Aude) where he had taken refuge.

By taking the place of a hostage, gendarme Arnaud Beltrame lost his life and received national tribute. 

Read alsoNational tribute: for Macron, gendarme Arnaud Beltrame embodies “the French spirit of resistance”

In the dock were Marine Pequignot, at the time Radouane Lakdim's girlfriend (she was 18 at the time), also very radicalized.

She knew, according to the prosecution, what he was capable of.  

To investigators, she explained that he loved weapons (he had "five or six machetes and knives", "two shotguns", a pistol) and often said that "compared to the unbelievers, he was going to lose his temper." ". 

Also judged, Radouane Lakdim's brother-in-law, Ahmed Arfaoui, 29, suspected in particular of having "disasterly cleaned" the jihadist's apartment on the day of the attack before the search, by taking a large full bag.  

Also referred to the court was Samir Manaa, 28, the friend who accompanied Radouane Lakdim to the hunting and fishing store where the assailant bought the knife which fatally injured Arnaud Beltrame.

For the prosecution, this friend nevertheless knew "his jihadist inclinations and his dangerousness". 

Considered the "head" of drug trafficking in the city, Reda El Yaakoubi, 34, was notably accused of having made Radouane Lakdim work, "thereby helping materially and financially" the assailant while he was " perfectly aware" of his state of mind.

With AFP.

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